Rachel Carson Exhibit opens at Alma College

Tess Von Wallmenica (far right), 11, and Fiona Von Wallmenica (center), 8, listen to their grandmother, Eileen Von Wallmenica (far left) explain the display board infront of them. Thursday, April 11, 2013. This is their second time viewing the display, “we love going to see this, it’s pretty cool.” Tess expressed as she continued ahead to look at the display boards, that were located in the Dow Science Building on Alma College Campus.

At the Rachel Carson Exhibit now open to the public at Alma College’s Dow Science building, Pine River Task Force Chair Jane Keon commented on its importance to the area.

“What gets me is that people consider this past history,” she said of the “travelling” exhibit borrowed from MSU by the college and the Pine River Task Force. “And we’re still dealing with it.”

Pointing to the exorbitant cost of the cleanups of the contamination left by the Velsicol Chemical Co. – so far totaling a half billion dollars – Alma College Professor and task force member Ed Lorenz said that kids and the public need to understand this history.

“The real goal is that we hope to get a lot of K-12 students in here to see the lesson,” he said.

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Carson’s book, “Silent Spring” has been named one of a very few books that changed the country. In Carson’s case, it led to the regulation of DDT.

Velsicol, which was the largest manufacturer of DDT in the country, spearheaded the resistance to Carson and her book, he said.

The exhibit belongs at Alma, he said.

“Carson started the second industrial revolution and we are all following her,” Lorenz said.

She was, Alma College geologist Murray Borrello said, the first one to question what the 20th-century chemical innovations were doing to the earth.

“Nobody else did,” he said. “Her message is still relevant today.”

Also present at the opening reception was Dan Rockafellow, the state’s Department of Environmental Quality project manager at the St. Louis Velsicol plant site, who also talked about the cost – in dollars and cents.

“It is an expensive cleanup,” he said. “And it will take a long time.”

Sequestration and budget cuts to the federal dollars from the Environmental Protection Agency will very likely impact the cleanup project.

“We won’t have much money to throw at it each year,” he said.

A total of 31 panels are part of the exhibit, which includes one made by the college.

Sophomore Kristina Caires, with eight other students assisting her, was in charge of the display.

An Environmental Studies major from Wyoming, Caires said she knew next to nothing about St. Louis and the chemical plant before she enrolled at Alma.

Now, she has a different perspective.

“This is happening right here,” she said. “Three miles down the road. It’s important to inform the campus. It’s important to know what’s going on there.”

The exhibit will be on display for several months.

Linda Gittleman may be reached at 989-463-6071, lgittleman@michigannewspapers.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lgittleman.